Leopold Strauss

Leopold Strauss (1846-1899) was an Austrian-American bookmaker and moneylender who was associated with the Van der Linde Gang during the last years of the 19th century.

Biography
Leopold Strauss was born in Vienna, Austrian Empire in 1846 to a very poor family, and he had serious health problems as a child. At age 17, he was sent on a ship to the New World with his uncle, and they arrived at the height of the 1863 New York draft riots; Strauss' uncle died of a heart attack upon seeing the sight of war-torn Brooklyn. Strauss was left alone in an unfamiliar land, and he spent several years as a scammer. He later scammed the wrong people and joined Dutch van der Linde's gang for protection, and he became his book-keeper and the head of his gang's money-lending operation. He rode as part of his outlaw gang in the last years of the Wild West, and he had Arthur Morgan collect money from his debtors. However, Morgan later grew upset with Strauss for ruining people's lives with his moneylending and for sending him to a debtor who had tuberculosis, which led to Morgan falling terminally ill with the same disease. Morgan ultimately had Strauss banished from the camp after having a conscience crisis, and Strauss was later captured by the Pinkertons and interrogated. He died in custody without giving up any information about the gang, and his fellow gang member John Marston praised his hidden strengths.